The examination of perceptions of district-related community stakeholders regarding governance in an underserved, suburban school district provides a snapshot of key concerns of the age. This research utilized a comprehensive, multi-pronged qualitative approach involving interviews and focus groups to uncover facets of this district's governance…

In 2018, the United States Congress passed the "Strengthening of Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act." This legislation included the requirement to conduct a comprehensive local needs assessment, which must include input from community stakeholders. This project designed and evaluated a three-step process that…

Poor nutrition and insufficient amounts of physical activity are key contributing factors to childhood obesity and can adversely affect the physical, social, and emotional health, along with the academic success, of today's youth. Comprehensive school-based initiatives, in combination with broader community efforts that target these behaviors, can…

This article uses Austin Community College (ACC) as a case study to illustrate how community colleges can build institutional capacity to provide dual enrollment. First, the manuscript synthesizes background literature on the growth of dual enrollment and implications for community colleges. Then, drawing on interviews from relevant stakeholders…

This mixed methods exploratory case study illuminates work of educational governance in a rural school district that has experienced dramatic improvement over a five-year period between 2017 and 2021. As such, we offer practical insights about how these leaders support continuous improvement, and theoretical insights about rurality, leadership,…

Principals today face greater job complexities and more diverse challenges than ever before because of decreases in resources, funding, and district support, along with increases in accountability expectations, student diversity, and unfunded federal and state mandates. Principals today are tasked with myriad responsibilities ranging from…

This case study involves a new school superintendent, unions, parent groups, and a school board. The case demonstrates how the emergence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic impacted the relationships between a school board, teacher and administrator unions, parent organizations, and the school superintendent. It is the story of…

In September 2022, CLE began a multi-phase study on the feasibility of creating a centralization entity (Educational Service Agency) to coordinate special education across New Orleans' decentralized system of autonomous charter schools. This executive summary of the study examines the interests and concerns of the New Orleans school community and…

In this paper, we report on the findings of a study that sought to understand the nature of circuit managers' leadership in supporting teaching and learning in the context of multiple deprivations in South Africa. The paper aimed first at examining the nature of circuit managers' leadership for learning in deprived school contexts, and second to…

Superintendents serve as the primary strategists and leaders for school divisions across the United States. Yet, organizational socialization to the community and to the district is one of the greatest challenges superintendents new to a district face as they transition into their roles. This case study examined how the work of the transition team…

Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) established schools to reduce the burdens of the government to the provision of public education to its citizens since the 1950s. They spend billions of Chinese yuan each year to educate the children of their employees by creating and operating a variety of early years centers, schools, vocational institutes,…

Shooting events and threats of shootings have come to shape the educational environment of many schools across the United States in recent years. Between 2021 and 2022, the number of threats alone rose by 60 percent, and most of these threats were made anonymously on various social media platforms commonly used by youth. While the overwhelming…

In the face of unprecedented challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic has tested the resilience and adaptability of educational systems worldwide. At the heart of this turmoil, the critical relationship between boards of education and superintendents has emerged as a focal point for both scrutiny and improvement. This dissertation examines the dynamics…

Responding to an identified need for more research around the effectiveness or consequences of school safety plans (Croft et al., 2019) and the finding that parents and children often felt unsafe on school campuses (Jones, 2018), the central purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of school district stakeholders regarding one…

Each year, the Maine Education Policy Research Institute conducts policy research in select topic areas for the Maine Legislature's Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs. Ideas for studies are proposed in winter by a steering committee of education stakeholders, and final selections are made in late spring by the legislators. The issues that…